Funny Microsoft Parody Ads Hit Web

Supposedly…

Is this the best we can do with the most recent Microsoft campaign, America? C’mon, ad community. Step up.

Schwab CMO Raves

About Rotoscope Ads

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

Videography: Steve Raddock

Charles Schwab CMO Becky Saeger said the company’s long series of rotoscoped ads have drawn some of the strongest reactions she has ever seen. Speaking at the recent Association of National Advertisers conference, she recounted how many viewers would later repeat the scripts verbatim to her. Prior to the current economic crisis, the campaign, by Euro RSCG, drew wide attention as a visual standout.

Brand vs. Brand: Attack Ads on the Rise

Dunkin’, Burger King, Microsoft Latest to Go Directly After Their Rivals

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Marketing seems to have entered a new era of attack ads. Whatever the reasons, comparative ads — some of them pretty aggressive — are all the rage.

FULL ARTICLE

As the Lines Blur, Digital Agencies Are Taking Lead Today Agency-of-Record Status Can Go to Anyone; Just Ask Tribal or Tequila

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Digital agencies are not only being invited to pitch brands as agencies of record — increasingly, they’re winning.

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Don’t Turn Drinking Into a Responsibility

Ignore the Warning in the Ads: Robert Rosenthal’s Recipe for Less Stress

Talentworks

“Drink responsibly.” Talk about an oxymoron. Haven’t we already got enough responsibility in our lives? Kids. Job. Clients. Decisions. Paying bills. Making deadlines. Watching your weight. Mowing the lawn. Filling the tank. Initiating foreplay. Then there’s moral responsibility, civic responsibility, fiduciary responsibility. Don’t you just want to say “Screw responsibility” sometimes? Those times were made for drinking.

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Creativity Weekly Top 5: Oct. 13 Brooke Shields Has a New Cause, Diesel Goes Literary, Dove Is ‘Waking up Hannah’ and Other Work

Watch the Videos

In this week’s episode of Creativity’s Top 5, courtesy Creativity-Online.com, The Atlantic and Euro RSCG ask some interesting questions; Diesel takes a break from cleaning up porn to team up with celebrated authors; VW and Crispin enlist Brooke Shields for a new cause; Dove and Ogilvy mix hangovers and choose-your-own-adventure storytelling; and Doritos accepts reservations at Hotel 626.

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Sims Venture Into Outside World Full of Advertising

Latest Version of Most Popular PC Title Will House Dynamic In-Game Ads

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — When “The Sims 3″ launches in February, the popular video game promises to be more realistic than ever, thanks to improved graphics, better processing power and an increase in ads. Yes, an increase in ads.

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States Use Tough Times to Tout Their Lotteries Governments Alter Messages, Employ Social Networks to Reach New Audiences

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — State governments are taking marketing of their lottos more seriously than ever, with different pitches and value-added offers such as gas discounts with purchase.

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Budweiser Ads Aim to Calm InBev Transition Fears

A 3 Minute Ad Age Video Report

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The $52 billion acquisition deal that will make Anheuser-Busch part of the Belgium-Brazilian company InBev has a lot of people wondering about their beer. What happens to iconic U.S. brands such as Budweiser once Anheuser-Busch is no longer a U.S. company? VP-Brand Management Keith Levy admits there are fears about change and that Budweiser’s new advertising campaigns are being carefully tailored to address those concerns.

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Coming Soon From Paramount Pictures: Digital Feature Films Division Inks Exclusive Deal With Hollywood Producers for Full-Length Web Content

Madison & Vine

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) — In a first-of-its-kind deal for the division, Paramount Pictures’ Paramount Digital Entertainment is entering into an exclusive partnership with two Hollywood execs to create and produce feature-length films for distribution online and through other digital media.

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Attack Ads Prove GOP Needs ‘Education’ in Straight Talk

McCain’s Latest Proves Republicans Still Tops When It Comes to Lying

Garfield’s Ad Review

Two spots from the McCain camp and one from the Republican National Committee represent the worst in presidential politics: lies, distortions and Rovian distractions of the most despicable kind.

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Creativity Weekly Top 5: Sept. 15 HSBC’s Family Differences, Wieden Touts Nike Women, Remembering Nagi Noda and Other Work

Watch the Spots

In this week’s episode of Creativity’s Top 5, courtesy Creativity-Online.com, HSBC and director Vince Squibb tell a tale of family differences; Digital Kitchen and HBO sink their teeth into Alan Ball’s “True Blood”; Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, touts Nike Women; MTV and Area/Code dive into competitive chatting online; and we remember pioneering director and artist Nagi Noda.

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NCAA Coaches Urge Ban on Beer Ads

College Presidents, Athletic Directors Also Support Effort

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — More than 100 college coaches are making a new appeal to NCAA President Myles Brand to eliminate alcohol advertising in telecasts of college sports as the NCAA’s Division 1 executive committee readies to meet Aug. 7 in Indianapolis.

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On TV, Married Sex Is Ho-Hum, but Affairs Are Hot Parents Television Council: Broadcast Prime Time Undermines Marriage

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — The Parents Television Council is accusing broadcast networks of showing sex between married couples as boring, burdensome or nonexistent, while depicting extramarital sex as positive. In a report released today, the group said that references to nonmarital sex greatly outnumber references to sex in marriage, among other findings.

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David Jr.’s Man-on-the-Street Schtick Wins Sponsors

Case Study As the Web-video entertainment genre lurches toward a business model, sponsorship has emerged as an early way to reward creators for their content, even if they don’t have the mass reach of traditional media. Web-video auteur David Jr., aka David Bruce Bates Jr., has landed sponsors like Puma and Starburst candies with his man-on-the-street stylings. FULL ARTICLE

`Look Ma! Ten Fingers!’—Instructional Video Featured Video While the how-to genre may get sniffed at by Web-video artistes in Hollywood, it’s racking up sponsorships by companies interested in putting their advertising next to predictable, safe and evergreen content. This Howcast.com video exemplifies how to do how-tos. (And how to draw about a quarter million views in a couple weeks.) FULL ARTICLE

Spotting ‘Fake’ Pre-Roll Ads How To The pre-roll ad may be reviled by users and embraced by the advertising community, but there are several breeds of this cat. Expertise in spotting a fake can keep a marketer from buying a dud. FULL ARTICLE

Seth MacFarlane Discusses His Landmark Google Content Deal

Comedy Project Could be Industry-Changing Event VIDEO NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Seth MacFarlane, the country’s highest-paid TV series creator, says his new content deal with Google is so complicated even he doesn’t really understand it. Ad Age Los Angeles bureau chief Claude Brodesser-Akner caught up with the director at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. The landmark agreement turns Mr. MacFarlane into an internet producer while transforming Google into an original entertainment content player with massive global distribution capabilities. PLAY

A Rare Admission: Wowed by Competitors’ Marketing How Vans Shoes Was Eclipsed by the Online Gimmick it Invented VIDEO Corporate marketing chiefs rarely admit that their company has fallen behind its competitors in a field it pioneered. But that’s what Doug Palladini, marketing VP of the half-a-billion dollar a year Vans, Inc., did at this week’s Associaton of National Advertisers’ Marketing Accountability Conference. In other news, Sobe debuted a follow-up to its Super Bowl spot that had supermodel Naomi Campbell dancing with lizards. And, State Farm erects a mini Yankee Stadium in Times Square. PLAY

Meet the Powerful and Real Women of the “Mad Men” Era One Club Exhibit Looks Back at Period’s Great Creatives VIDEO Although AMC’s hit “Mad Men” show portrays its advertising era as one of total male dominance, the truth is there WERE powerful women in real agencies back then. This fact is one of the core themes of The One Club’s extensive new exhibit at the Science, Industry and Business facility of the New York Public Library. Entitled “The Real Men & Women of Madison Avenue,” the show focuses on the individuals who actually created some of the century’s most iconic and industry-changing ad works. PLAY

World’s Largest Digital Sign Nears Completion in Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Building Becomes Vast Digital Billboard VIDEO Turning three sides of a 25-story building into a coordinated animation display, the world’s largest digital sign is nearing completion in Times Square. Commissioned by Walgreens, it wraps One Times Square, the famed building from which the New Year’s Eve ball drops. Its 23 synchornized digital screens dwarf those of the nearby Thomson-Reuters sign which has only 11 such units. The designers are determined to push the competitive advertising environment of Times Square to a whole new level. PLAY

Why Unilever is Quite Unexcited About Using HDTV Ads Director of Strategic Media Planning All But Yawns at Subject VIDEO Although hyping the advertising potential of HDTV is all the rage across the sales side of televisiondom, more than a few big markters have yet to be convinced. In fact, one of the biggest — Unilever — is quite unexcited about the whole thing. And that’s no small issue, given that the package goods giant buys $2.2 billion worth of U.S. advertising each year. In other news, ABC’s sales chief is not happy with talk about programming commercials according to their performance. And, some big rock stars have launched their own lines of coffee, which we put to the taste test. PLAY

Creativity’s 5 Top Ads of The Week: July 14, 2008 Absolut, PES, American Express, Monster.com, Channel 4 VIDEO Great Works and TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, offer online users Kanye-fication on behalf of Absolut; PES animates a tasty meal; Tina Fey bumps into Martin Scorsese for American Express; Monster.com and JWT, Hong Kong, show the sad state of underemployed toys; and 4Creative gives a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shining” for Channel 4. PLAY